Australia says 32 asylum seekers will go overseas

A boat load of 32 asylum seekers found in Australian waters will become the first to be sent to Malaysia, Papua New Guinea or another Asia-Pacific country under the government's contentious new strategy to deter future refugees from making the same journey, an official said on Saturday. The government last week struck a deal with Malaysia to swap asylum seekers for bona fide refugees and is negotiating with Papua New Guinea to accept hundreds of people who have paid smugglers to bring them to Australia by boat. The message to asylum seekers is that Australia will not accept any more of them. The navy intercepted the latest boat load of asylum seekers suspected to be from Afghanistan and Pakistan off the northwest coastal town of Broome overnight, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said. They would be housed in a detention center at Christmas Island, an Australian territory n...